20th century.
Born 7 April 1887, in Chiari, near Brescia; died 9 November 1950, at Cavaglio Spoccia, near Novara (Piedmont).
Painter, pastellist, watercolourist, draughtsman. Religious subjects, figures, portraits.
Symbolism.
Attilio Andreoli studied at the Accademia di Belle Arti di Brera and was a pupil of Clemente Tafuri at the Accademia di Belle Arti in Naples. He painted figures and portraits, often of women, where features seem to dissolve in the vibrations of ochre and dark tones....
French, 19th – 20th century, male.
Born 1867, in St-André-sur-Vieux-Jonc (Ain); died 1948, in St-Paul-de-Varax (Ain).
Painter. Religious subjects, mythological subjects, landscapes.
Symbolism.
Antoine Bourbon studied at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris at Gustave Moreau's studio where he associated with Georges Rouault. He exhibited Cleopatra...
British, 19th century, male.
Born 16 April 1821, in Calais, France, to British parents; died October 1893, in London.
Painter, watercolourist, draughtsman. Religious subjects, portraits.
Symbolism.
Pre-Raphaelite (forerunner).
Ford Madox Brown's father, a senior officer on half pay in the British navy, settled on the continent. The boy showed a talent for drawing from his early youth. He was to work in many European towns including Bruges, Ghent and particularly Antwerp where he became the pupil of Baron Wappers, who had studied with David. The early years of Brown's career were interrupted by the deaths of first his mother, then one of his sisters. This was followed by his father falling ill and needing much care from his son. The state of health of Brown's new young wife was subsequently to cause him further anxiety. They left Paris, where Brown had been living for four years, for the warmer climate of Italy but less than a year later, in 1845, his wife, who felt lost and unhappy in Italy, wished to return to Calais. She died in the carriage as it crossed Paris....
Belgian, 20th century, male.
Born 1886, in Mons; died 1954 or 1964, in Brussels.
Painter (gouache). Religious subjects, genre scenes.
Symbolism.
Antonio Carte-Anto attended the academy in Mons and was a pupil of Constant Montald, Émile Fabry and Jean Delville at the academy in Brussels. He came to Paris to continue his training and studied fresco technique in Italy. He later succeeded Montald at the academy in Brussels and was elected a member of the Belgian Académie Royale....
Belgian, 19th – 20th century, male.
Born 28 February 1867, in Monthermé (Ardennes), France; died 1 March 1935, in Stavelot.
Painter, pastellist, lithographer, draughtsman. Religious subjects, portraits, landscapes, urban landscapes.
Symbolism.
William Degouve de Nuncques initially pursued a career in music. In painting he was self-taught but nonetheless came under the influence of the Symbolist painter Jan Toorop, with whom he formed a close friendship from 1883, and Henri de Groux. From 1890 he exhibited in Paris at the Salon of the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts and made the acquaintance of Rodin, Puvis de Chavannes and Maurice Denis, who encouraged him. In 1894 he became a member of the ...
French, 19th – 20th century, male.
Born 14 March 1848, in Paris; died 16 October 1924, in Paris.
Painter. Religious subjects, allegorical subjects, genre scenes, landscapes.
Symbolism.
Paul Delance came from Belgian stock on his grandfather's side and was the grandson of Comte Joseph van Roosebeck. He studied under Gérôme at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris and first exhibited at the Paris Salon of ...
French, 19th – 20th century, male.
Born 25 October 1851, in Douai; died 25 October 1928, in Wissant.
Painter. Religious subjects, mythological subjects, genre scenes, landscapes, animals.
Symbolism.
Before becoming a painter, Adrien Demont had studied law at Douai. He the switched to art and studied first under Émile Breton, then under Jules Breton, whose daughter he married....
Russian, 20th century, female.
Born 1922, in Leningrad (now St Petersburg).
Painter. Figure compositions, religious subjects.
Symbolism.
Olga Desnitskaya studied with Aleksandr Osmerkin and Mikhail Avilov at the Ilya Repin Institute in Leningrad. A member of the Artists' Union of Leningrad, she did not follow the official imperatives requiring adherence to the technical and academic realism of the 19th century. Her pictorial language was original and synthetic and her use of colour contrasted cold sky blues with the warm ochres and browns of her décor and her figures....
British, 19th – 20th century, male.
Born 1864, in London; died 22 September 1920, in London.
Painter. History painting, religious subjects, mythological subjects, portraits, landscapes.
Symbolism.
Herbert James Draper studied at the Royal Academy in London from 1884 to 1887 and then in Paris at the Académie Julian until 1891. A painter of Romantic, historical and literary subjects shown in a diaphanous light, he also painted sophisticated portraits and landscapes. In 1903 he decorated the ceiling of Draper's Hall. Draper exhibited at the Royal Academy in London from 1887 and also took part in the Exposition Universelle in Paris in 1900. A retrospective exhibition of his work was held in 1913....
Moroccan, 20th century, male.
Born 1924, near Marrakech.
Painter. Figures.
Symbolism.
The absence of figurative representation in much traditional Islamic art is less the result of a religious ban than a symptom of the religion's symbolic relationship with the world. Drissi's painting is characterised by this ambiguity: in painting figures in given situations, he nevertheless strips them of their bodily appearance, creating strictly hieratic shapes cloaked either in a burnous or a djellaba, featureless faces, and oppressive, empty surrounds where the living are never far from the grave....
British, 19th century, male.
Born 1806, in Aberdeen; died 15 February 1864, in Streatham.
Painter, engraver, fresco artist. Religious subjects, figures, portraits, landscapes. Designs for stained glass.
Symbolism.
Pre-Raphaelite (related to).
William Dyce, the son of a doctor, was a pupil at Marischal College, Aberdeen, where he obtained his diploma at the age of 16. Afterwards, he followed courses at the academies of London and Edinburgh. In ...
French, 20th century, male.
Born 14 August 1870, in Paris; died 1950.
Painter, draughtsman, illustrator, engraver. Religious subjects, figures, nudes, genre scenes, still-lifes. Murals.
Symbolism.
Groupe Libre Esthétique.
From the beginning of his career it was a constant concern of Georges d'Espagne to assert his originality. His studies at the École des Arts Décoratifs, Paris, did not last very long, for he wanted immediate independence and decided to follow courses in the private academies of Montparnasse. In about 1900, he became acquainted with Maurice Denis, Bonnard and Vuillard, and his collaboration with Denis led to a renewal of religious art in France....
Filipino, 20th – 21st century, male.
Born 1972, in Las Piñas City, Manila, Philippines.
Painter, sculptor. Religious subjects, socio-political themes.
Folk art, symbolism.
Anting-Anting Group.
Alfredo Esquillo Jr. graduated from the University of Santo Tomas College of Fine Arts in 1993. He first gained recognition when he won first prize in the ASEAN Art Awards in ...
French, 19th century, male.
Born 1818, in Nancy; died 1897.
Painter, watercolourist, pastellist, miniaturist, lithographer. Religious subjects, portraits, genre scenes, animals. Murals.
Symbolism.
Louis Stanislas Faivre-Duffer studied under Claude Bonnefond and Victor Orsel at the Lyons École des Beaux-Arts before joining the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, where he won many awards. He then travelled to Rome. In 1836 he made his début at the Lyons Salon with ...
British, 19th – 20th century, male.
Born 1872; died 1923, in Paris.
Painter (gouache), watercolourist. Figure compositions, religious subjects, landscapes.
Symbolism.
Edward Reginald Frampton was the son of a stained-glass artist and attended Brighton Grammar School, where he was a contemporary of Aubrey Beardsley. They continued their studies together at the Westminster School of Art. Frampton then began working with his father while making study trips to Italy and France. In his early career he painted mainly decorative murals and also decorated war memorials but was chiefly known for the easel paintings he exhibited regularly from 1894. Frampton's paintings took as their themes literary, religious and symbolist subjects. He later concentrated on landscapes of Sussex, Cumberland, the Channel Isles, Brittany and the Bernese Oberland. He died suddenly in Paris while on one of his trips to Austria and was buried at St-Germain. Frampton's knowledge of stained-glass work, the influence of the early Italian masters and of Puvis de Chavannes and Burne-Jones combined to give him a very personal style similar to that of the Pre-Raphaelites....
Belgian, 20th century, male.
Born 1931, in Jumet.
Painter.
Symbolism.
Frère studied at the fine arts academy in Charleroi and went on to paint numerous compositions featuring flowers and/or skeletons. His work symbolises his deeply held religious beliefs.
Belgian, 20th century, male.
Born 1891, in Audenarde; died 1965, in Laethem-St-Martin.
Painter. Religious subjects, still-lifes.
Symbolism.
Gevaert was the son-in-law of the painter and sculptor Georges Minne. He was self-taught in painting, and was also a poet and a composer.
Danish, 19th – 20th century, male.
Born 15 May 1864, in Copenhagen; died 13 February 1916, in Copenhagen.
Painter. Figures, nudes, portraits, interiors with figures, landscapes, church interiors.
Symbolism.
Vilhelm Hammershøi, brother of Svend, born into a well-to-do family, had drawing lessons from the age of eight and received constant encouragement from his mother in the pursuit of his artistic vocation. In ...
British, 19th – 20th century, male.
Born 2 April 1827, in London; died 7 September 1910, in London.
Painter, watercolourist, draughtsman. Religious subjects, portraits, genre scenes, landscapes.
Symbolism.
Pre-Raphaelite.
William Holman Hunt worked in London as an office clerk from 1839 (when he was just 12 years old) until 1843. He entered the Royal Academy Schools on his third attempt, in 1844, and trained alongside John Everett Millais. He exhibited his first painting with the Royal Academy in 1845. Holman Hunt's earliest works announced his lifelong fascination with literary subjects, such as the ...
Belgian, 19th – 20th century, male.
Born 1854, in St Niklaas; died 1930, in Antwerp.
Painter. Historical subjects, religious subjects, portraits. Church decoration.
Symbolism.
Joseph Janssens studied under Jan Swerts in Antwerp, under Franz Ittenbach in Düsseldorf, and under Godefroid Guffens at the Académie Royale des Beaux Arts in Brussels. Examples of his work were shown at the Brussels Exposition Universelle of ...
